Tourist To Be Encourage To Spend More On Shopping

[george]

Tourist to be encourage to spend more on shopping

BANGKOK: -- Thailand plans to try to boost tourist spending with the launch of a new visitors discount card.

The state-run Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and the credit card company Visa International have agreed to issue two million Thailand Visitor Cards for local and foreign tourists.

The authorities plan to distribute the cards to foreign tourists through TAT offices overseas, at airports and through leading hotels.

The cards will give tourists discounts of up to 30% on goods and services purchased between April this year and the end of March 2006. However, the card will have to be used in conjunction with Visa credit or debit card.

Thailand’s tourist authorities also plan to organise a tourist promotion program, Thailand Grand Sale 2005, offering special discounts of between 10-50% to foreign tourists visiting Thailand during June and July.

The special discount will be offered at more than 2,000 leading stores in Bangkok and in many provincial centres.

The TAT hopes to increase shopping expenditure to 30% of total tourist revenue. More than 13 million tourists are expended to spend 450 billion baht while on holiday in Thailand in 2005.

The Amazing Thailand Grand Sale Fair 2005 will be held at Bangkok’s Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre between 2-5 June. The organisers expect more than 275,000 local and foreign visitors will visit the fair and generate more than 400 million baht.

--TNA 2005-04-23

[Phil Conners]

Easy. Start by cutting the 3-5% surcharge on card purchases.,

Then add some basic consumer protection.

Finally, get the sales people here to understand that they are not doing customers a favor by letting them buy stuff, it's the other way around.

Sort these points out and people might start spending more.

[petedk]

Why not just abolish 2 tier pricing?

[CMguy]

Easy. Start by cutting the 3-5% surcharge on card purchases.,

Then add some basic consumer protection.

Finally, get the sales people here to understand that they are not doing customers a favor by letting them buy stuff, it's the other way around.

Sort these points out and people might start spending more.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

My thoughts exactly

[Joey Boy]

Why not just abolish 2 tier pricing?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

was thinkin the same thing, would be a good idea to encourage thais to stop ripping tourists off aswell

[eljeque]

Doesn't this sound like a scaled down version of the former $25,000 card.

Tourist to be encourage to spend more on shopping

*** Wait until the bargirls learn of this!

BANGKOK: -- Thailand plans to try to boost tourist spending with the launch of a new visitors discount card.

The state-run Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and the credit card company Visa International have agreed to issue two million Thailand Visitor Cards for local and foreign tourists.

***What is a local tourist? Is it someone coming down to Pattaya from Bkk? So, will every savy Thai peson now choose to buy goods at a discount when oputside of their home city? Can I send my gf up to Bkk to go shopping and get this great discount now?

The authorities plan to distribute the cards to foreign tourists through TAT offices overseas, at airports and through leading hotels.

The cards will give tourists discounts of up to 30% on goods and services purchased between April this year and the end of March 2006. However, the card will have to be used in conjunction with Visa credit or debit card.

*** I hope that my gf can use it at Big C as well. Which stores are going to allow her to get a discount of 30% by simply showing them a card?

Thailand’s tourist authorities also plan to organise a tourist promotion program, Thailand Grand Sale 2005, offering special discounts of between 10-50% to foreign tourists visiting Thailand during June and July.

The special discount will be offered at more than 2,000 leading stores in Bangkok and in many provincial centres.

*** There goes my Big C idea.

The TAT hopes to increase shopping expenditure to 30% of total tourist revenue.

*** I doubt they have performed studies using price elasticity to understand changes in purchase quantity, but big numbers look good anyway.

More than 13 million tourists are expected to spend 450 billion baht while on holiday in Thailand in 2005.

The Amazing Thailand Grand Sale Fair 2005 will be held at Bangkok’s Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre between 2-5 June. The organisers expect more than 275,000 local and foreign visitors will visit the fair and generate more than 400 million baht.

***Thailand had roughly 800,000 arrivals in the month of June a couple of years ago. Those were the most recent numbers I could locate on a monthly basis. These tourists stayed on average of 10 days each. As this fair will be for only 4 days, and only 26,666 tourists arrive and leave each day -- with 266,666 here, and not all of them being in Bkk, the fair hopes to get a vary large portion of these tourists to visit.... even more than the Grand Palace!!!

I wish them luck.

[bino]

In my opinion this program won't work. It will probably just add a 3rd tier to pricing as the merchants adjust the price to farang price plus 30% to cover the discount.

I agree with the more sensible ideas offered by madsere and petedk.